Moth to a Flame (10 page)
Authors: Ashley Antoinette
“Don’t touch Raven,” Mizan instructed as he pulled the ski mask over his face. “I don’t give a fuck about that other bitch, but Raven belongs to me.”
“I think you’re feeling her and don’t want to admit it,” Rich replied.
“I don’t give a fuck about a bitch. This is about a dollar. I’ve got to do this. It’ll make her desperate to get this money, and where do you think she’s going to go get it?” Mizan asked. He didn’t wait for Rich to reply. “Right back home to Daddy.”
Mizan and Rich got out of the car and approached Mizan’s house with pistols in hand. Mizan knocked on the door. He knew that Raven had a bad habit of opening the door to see who was outside, instead of looking through the peephole, and as soon as he saw it crack he kicked it open. The impact of the door caused Raven to fall to the floor.
“Nikki!” she screamed as she scrambled backward, away from the two masked men.
Nikki came rushing into the room, but instantly turned on her heels when she realized what was happening. Rich went running after her, grabbing her by the hair. “Bitch, where you think you going?” he asked.
“No!” Nikki screamed as she kicked and swung, trying to free herself of his hold. Rich covered her mouth with his hand and she bit down as hard as she could.
“Aghh fuck! You bitch!” he hollered as he backhanded her across the face.
“Nikki!” Raven screamed as she was snatched up from the floor. Snot and tears covered her face as she pushed her assailant off of her. She had no idea that the man behind the mask was Mizan, and the fear she felt paralyzed her.
“Raven!” Nikki yelled, hysterical. They called for each other as if they could save one another, as if they weren’t in the same predicament.
The men manhandled the girls, dragging them down the hallway toward the bedroom.
“No! No please!” Raven screamed as she held on to the walls. Mizan held her with such force that her nails broke and her fingertips bled. “No!”
“Shut that bitch up!” Rich screamed.
They forced the girls onto the bed, sticking their guns in the center of their foreheads. Rich went into action. He was the only one who could speak because they would have recognized Mizan’s voice.
“Put your hands out,” Rich instructed. The girls hudd-led together, hugging each other for dear life. Mizan snatched Raven’s hands so hard that she felt like her wrists were breaking.
“What do you want?” Raven yelled.
“We want our money. That nigga Mizan been dodging me for weeks. Now we’re here to collect,” Rich said harshly, planting the mental seed so that Mizan could grow it later. “Where the money?”
“I don’t know!” she responded.
“Too bad for you,” Rich replied in a sinister tone.
She sniffled loudly as Mizan zip-tied her wrists together in front of her. When Nikki saw Raven’s wrists getting bound, she knew what they had in store for them.
They’re going to kill us,
she thought. She knew that she didn’t have anything to lose. She ran for the door full speed. She got all the way to the front door, but as soon as she opened it Rich came barreling into her from behind, causing the weight of her body to slam the door.
They’re going to kill us,
she thought. She knew that she didn’t have anything to lose. She ran for the door full speed. She got all the way to the front door, but as soon as she opened it Rich came barreling into her from behind, causing the weight of her body to slam the door.
“Where you going, bitch?” he asked through clenched teeth as he threw her down on the floor. He mounted her, licking his lips as he noticed her ripe body for the first time. “Now I’ma have to teach you a lesson,” he said as he unbuckled his pants, preparing to have a little fun.
As Nikki looked up into the eyes of the man in front of her she began to sob, her chest heaving up and down as her head fell to the side. She felt him get on top of her and slide her shaky legs open. She closed her eyes and refused to look. She didn’t want to be a witness to the rape that was about to occur.
Mizan looked down at Raven as she sat with her head down and her hands in front of her body. As he pointed his gun to her head, she was so afraid that she shook violently. He pushed her back on the bed and got on top of her, staring her directly in her eyes.
“Please don’t do this,” she cried as she listened to the screams of Nikki coming from the next room. He ignored her pleas and opened her legs. She used all of her strength to keep them closed, but he was too strong and pulled them apart with such force, she thought they may have broken.
His ultimate goal was to scare her into submission. He had to make her think that her back was against a wall so that when he asked her to do the unthinkable, she would agree.
When she saw him unzip his pants she knew there was no stopping him. She took a deep breath and forced herself to stop crying as he positioned himself on top of her. She was waiting for the pain to come. She was prepared to scream with Nikki as they were tortured together. She closed her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat while her heart beat rapidly. She stifled her cries, and she felt a cold hand on her thigh she tensed in terror.
“When Mizan find out you did this to me, he’s going to kill you. You bitch-ass nigga,” she whispered hatefully as she trembled and stared her attacker in the eyes.
Mizan paused and looked down at Raven. He was surprised at her loyalty. Despite the threat of danger, Raven had stood behind her man. He scoffed and got to his feet as he zipped his pants back up. He had always demanded her loyalty, but with the words that had just come out of her mouth she had gained his in return. He saw Raven in a new light, and in that moment he decided to keep her around after he got rid of her father.
Boom!
Out of nowhere a loud blast erupted through the house. “Nik!” Raven screamed out for her, and when Nikki didn’t respond she knew what it meant.
Out of nowhere a loud blast erupted through the house. “Nik!” Raven screamed out for her, and when Nikki didn’t respond she knew what it meant.
Mizan rushed out of the room. When he saw the bloodbath in front of him, he snatched Rich up by the neck and pushed him toward the door.
Raven ran into the room, not caring that they had guns pointed in her direction. She had to check on Nikki. She knew in her heart that she had been shot, but when she saw her lying in the middle of the floor naked, a pool of blood surrounding her head, she fell to her knees beside her.
“No ... no, Nik ... wake up!” she whispered as she cradled her bloody face in her hands. Raven tried to press her hands against the bullet hole in her temple, but nothing she did would stop the profuse flow of blood as it seeped onto the floor.
Raven crawled to the house phone and picked it up, her shaky hand barely able to dial 911. “Please, I need help,” she muttered hopelessly.
Rich lunged toward her to snatch the phone from her hand, but Mizan grabbed his forearm forcefully and stared him in the eye. The look he gave Rich spoke a thousand words. He had meant what he said: Rich was not to touch Raven. Oddly, Mizan knew he felt something deeper for Raven then he was willing to admit, and he gave her one last look before pushing Rich out the front door.
“Fuck did you do?” he screamed at Rich as soon as they were in the getaway car.
“Shit got out of hand,” Rich said nonchalantly as he peeled off the ski mask.
“You stupid mu’fucka. Now my crib is a fucking crime scene. I said scare the bitch, not kill her,” Mizan said, enraged. He hit the steering wheel in frustration and put as much distance between himself and his house as possible. “Fuck!” he shouted. He hadn’t meant for anyone to get seriously hurt.
Fuck it, what’s done is done,
he thought. His cell phone began to vibrate and he pulled it off his hip to see that it was Raven, trying to reach him. He picked it up.
Fuck it, what’s done is done,
he thought. His cell phone began to vibrate and he pulled it off his hip to see that it was Raven, trying to reach him. He picked it up.
“Yo’?” he answered coolly.
“I ... I need you to come home. She’s shot ... . They came in here ... They tied me up.” She sobbed uncontrollably. She was so terrified that she couldn’t piece her words together intelligibly.
Mizan played his role perfectly, like a skilled actor. “What? Rae, I can’t understand you. Calm down and tell me what went down.” He tried to appear rational.
Raven didn’t have the strength to repeat herself, and all he heard were her wails accompanied by sirens. “I’m on my way,” he shouted, then hung up the phone.
He pulled up to Rich’s house and they both went inside, where Mizan quickly changed clothes. Before Mizan left, he said, “Keep your mouth shut about what happened tonight. I’ll let you know when we’re hitting the safe. Until then, lay low.”
Rich nodded and Mizan pulled off into the night, heading back to his house to come to the rescue of the woman he had just terrorized.
Chapter Eight
Flashing red, white, and blue lights were scattered all over Mizan’s street when he pulled onto his block. He made sure that he tucked his pistol underneath his seat before he got out to search for Raven. He saw her standing on the front yard, speaking with a police officer, and he hesitantly made his way over to her. When she saw him she broke down, running to him as if he could take all of her pain away. She melted into his embrace as he wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s okay, ma ... I’m right here,” he whispered in her ear. “What happened?” he asked.
Before she could respond a police officer interrupted them. He attempted to finish questioning Raven, but in her current state she wasn’t much help. She refused to say too much. All she could think of was Nikki and how close she had come to ending up just like her. There were policemen and paramedics everywhere, and all Raven wanted to do was get away from all the madness.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Mizan said, touching her with such care that he even fooled himself into thinking his concern was genuine. She began to walk away with him, but stopped suddenly when she heard a paramedic call out for help behind her.
“We have a pulse in here! We need to get her to a hospital before we lose her!”
Raven turned around and ran back toward the house. “She’s alive? Raven called out in shock. She had seen all of the blood that had come out of Nikki. “They shot her in the head,” she whispered in pure disbelief. A police officer stopped her from getting too close to the gurney that Nikki lay on. “Is she all right? I just want to know if she’s okay!” she shouted. “She needs me!”
Mizan grabbed Raven by her waist and carried her away kicking and screaming. “I have to be with her!” she yelled. She spoke with such persistence that Mizan had to oblige. He grabbed her by the shoulders to calm her down.
“We will meet her at the hospital,” he assured her.
The waiting room was eerily silent as Raven sat between Mizan and Nikki’s mother. They had been there for five hours anticipating the results of the emergency surgery that Nikki was undergoing.
“I don’t understand this ... I don’t understand how this happened to my baby,” Nikki’s mother said.
“I’m so sorry, Auntie Gena,” Raven whispered as she put her face in her hands.
“I can’t just sit here and wait. I need to find out what’s going on in there!”
Nikki’s mother stormed off, an emotional wreck, while Raven leaned against Mizan. It was 4:00
A.M.
and Raven’s body begged her to rest, but she could not sleep until she found out if her best friend would make it.
A.M.
and Raven’s body begged her to rest, but she could not sleep until she found out if her best friend would make it.
“Who were they, Mizan?” she asked quietly.
Mizan rubbed his freshly cut Caesar and appeared to be searching for an answer.
“Tell me the truth. I think I deserve to know,” she continued.
“I owe somebody a lot of money ... the type of money that people will kill over,” he said. “That’s why I don’t like for you to leave the house without me. That’s why I don’t like a lot of people to know where I rest my head. That’s why I can’t allow you to have this baby.”
“What?” she whispered as she looked at him sadly.
“I owe these niggas a hundred stacks, Raven,” he informed her. “They’ll touch you and everybody I love for that type of dough. I can’t put you and my baby in harm’s way like that, ma. We got to end this now. I can’t fuck with you like that no more.”
“What! What do you mean you can’t fuck with me, Mizan? I gave up everything for you. Where am I supposed to go?” she asked. “I love you. I don’t want to be without you.”
“It’s not safe with me, Rae. That could have been you up in that operating room,” he said passionately. It was odd, because even though Mizan had orchestrated the entire night’s events, he meant what he was telling her. He did have feelings for her, but they were so unfamiliar to him. He had never felt love before. It had never been given to him, therefore he didn’t know how to give it to someone else. His love came in the form of control and chaos. “I don’t have a hundred thousand, Raven. That’s the only way these niggas gon’ stop gunning for me.”
“You can’t leave me alone,” she whispered as a huge teardrop fell from her eyes, splattering on the floor at her feet. “You told me you would take care of me. I can’t go home now. You can’t do this to me, Mizan. If you do, everything they said about you will be true.”
“I have to, ma,” he said, laying it on thick as his eyelids filled with phony tears. Mizan delivered an Oscar, worthy performance as he gripped her hand. He stood to leave, but before he could take two steps in the other direction, she spoke.
“What if I can get you the money?” she said.
“I can’t ask you to do that, ma. I don’t want you involved.”
“Mizan, my best friend is in there dying. I was tied up and almost raped with your baby inside of me,” she whispered frantically. “I’m already involved. I can get you the money ... Let me help.”
“If you thinking about going to your old man, it is not going to work, Raven. Your father hates me. The nigga will see me slumped in the gutter before he comes out of his pocket for me,” Mizan said truthfully.
“That’s why I’m not going to ask him,” she replied. “I know the combination to his safe. He gave it to me and my mother so that if anything ever happened to him we would have access to his paper. If this is what it takes for us to be together, then I’ll do it.”
“That’s your father,” Mizan said, playing devil’s advocate. He wanted to be sure that she planned every aspect of the setup. He did not want her to ever put two and two together. In her eyes, she would be the one who thought of the entire thing.
“You’re my man,” she replied sincerely. “I’ll do anything for you.”
Raven stared at Mizan as she picked up the phone and dialed her father’s number. It had been such a long time since she had last seen him. Her leg jumped around nervously, causing her high heel to tap against the tiled floor. She counted the number of times the phone rang. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do. To set up the man who had raised her was eating her up inside, but the greater threat of losing Mizan was what stopped her from hanging up the phone. She thought of the baby growing inside of her—the one that she desperately wanted—and knew that if she did not do this, Mizan would leave. It wasn’t something that she was willing to let happen.
“Hello?” Benjamin finally answered.
“Hey, Daddy,” she whispered. Hearing his voice was therapy to her weary soul. There was never a problem that he could not fix. Her father had been the keeper of her heart until Mizan had come along and stolen it away.
“Baby girl ... I’m glad you called,” he said. “Your mama has been trying to call you. She’s been worried sick over you.”
Raven smiled. She knew that he really wanted to say he had been worried. “I miss you too, Daddy,” she replied, her voice shaky. Mizan stared at her intensely, adding pressure to the already tense situation. She closed her eyes to block him out and opened her mouth to speak. She knew that the next words out of her mouth would establish her allegiance to Mizan. “I really need to see you. I don’t want to fight with you anymore. I just want my daddy back.” She bit her fingernails while fighting the moisture that built up in her eyes.
“I want my baby girl back too,” Benjamin replied. “I only want what’s best for you, Raven. I love you.”
“I love you too, Daddy. Can we meet for breakfast so that we can talk?” she asked.
“Yeah, I would like that,” he replied. “I’ll pick you up at two o’clock.”
“Okay, Daddy, see you soon,” she said before closing her cell phone. She looked up at Mizan. “I don’t feel right about this,” she told him. “He will hate me after this.”
“We will make it look like a robbery, ma, don’t worry. You just keep him away from the house for at least an hour. Where is your moms and sister?” he asked.
“It’s Sunday. They go to church every Sunday morning,” Raven replied.
“Everything will be okay, a’ight? Trust your man,” Mizan stated as he stood and rubbed her hair. He gripped her shoulders gently and pulled her to her feet. “Go get dressed. You want to be ready when your pops get here. Remember, give me an hour to get in and out. What’s the combination to the safe?”
“Eight-fourteen-twenty-four,” she muttered hesitantly. As the numbers rolled off of her tongue, a wave of extreme guilt swept over her. She lifted her head to the sky.
God, please don’t let anything go wrong. Just make everything okay.
Raven had to put her faith somewhere because the pit in her stomach was telling her that this could blow up in her face.
God, please don’t let anything go wrong. Just make everything okay.
Raven had to put her faith somewhere because the pit in her stomach was telling her that this could blow up in her face.
A smile came to Raven’s face when she heard the sound of Al Green coming down the street. Only her father would cruise to the old school music with such pride. She shook her head in embarrassment as he pulled his pearl Cadillac STS into the driveway. She rushed into her bedroom, went into her candy dish, and took out a small amount of cocaine. She felt badly for indulging in the white candy while she was pregnant, but she needed it. She was hooked on it, loving the euphoric feeling it gave her, and she figured a little bit wouldn’t hurt. It was how she started every day, but she knew that she would especially need it today in order to deal with the lecture her father was sure to give her. She hit the line like a pro and then rushed outside. She was genuinely happy to see her dad and she smiled brightly as she hopped in the car.
“Hey, Daddy,” she greeted him as she leaned over to kiss his cheek.
“You flew up out there before I could even get in the driveway good,” he commented as he looked at the small house. “I’m not welcomed in your house? He got you living here and I can’t come inside?”
Raven sighed.
Here he go,
she thought. “Daddy, you can come in.” She opened her car door and headed back inside with her father on her heels. She knew that he only wanted to come inside to be nosy. He turned his nose up almost as soon as he stepped foot inside.
Here he go,
she thought. “Daddy, you can come in.” She opened her car door and headed back inside with her father on her heels. She knew that he only wanted to come inside to be nosy. He turned his nose up almost as soon as he stepped foot inside.
“This is where he has my baby girl laying her head at night?” he asked, his tone insinuating disapproval.
“Daddy, don’t start. I’m not with Mizan because of what he has,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I’m not even trying to get into all of that. Let’s just go have a nice breakfast.”
“You know you deserve more than this. I don’t look down on a nigga because he doesn’ t make a lot of money. I just don’t respect how he makes his money and you are above this lifestyle. I didn’t raise you to play housewife, Raven, cuz that’ s all this is ... You’re playing house.”
“It’s not like that, Daddy,” she replied. “I know you don’t like him, but I really need you to give him a chance.”
Benjamin shook his head. “That’s not going to happen, Raven. He has no morals. No code. I can’ t throw stones because I’m not society’s most honorable citizen either. I know that some people might think what I do is wrong. I’m a hustler. I sell drugs, but the difference between me and Mizan is that I take care of those who take care of me. I’m loyal. I know a snake when I see one, and whenever you are ready to come back home, my door will always be open.”
As he took in his daughter’s appearance he noticed that she had changed. She was no longer the delicate flower he had nurtured. Being with Mizan had hardened her around the edges. Her eyes were red and her lips had taken on a slightly darker tint; a clear indication that she had been smoking weed. He had no clue that his baby girl had graduated to snorting soft, but if he had known it would only intensify his desire to snatch her out of Mizan’s clutches and force her to come home. “Let’ s get out of here,” he whispered.
He led the way back to his car and opened the door for Raven before getting in himself. He reached into his glove box and pulled out the key to Raven’s Lexus.
“I’m not giving this to you because I agree with how you’re living. I’m giving it to you because I want you to have your own. Whenever you want to leave, you have a way out,” he said.
Raven gave her father a half smile as she put her hand on her stomach.
Should I tell him I’m pregnant?
She desperately wanted her father’s blessing, but she was not ready to deal with him knowing about her baby.
Mizan was right. He would have never helped us.
Hearing her father speak so critically of Mizan only made her feel more confident in her choice to help Mizan. She put on a fake smile as she rode shotgun with her father through the city streets.
Should I tell him I’m pregnant?
She desperately wanted her father’s blessing, but she was not ready to deal with him knowing about her baby.
Mizan was right. He would have never helped us.
Hearing her father speak so critically of Mizan only made her feel more confident in her choice to help Mizan. She put on a fake smile as she rode shotgun with her father through the city streets.
Entering the Atkins home was a piece of cake. With the security code Raven had provided, and the combination to the safe, Mizan and Rich entered without arising suspicion. They quickly made their way up the carpeted stairs and entered the master bedroom. They followed Raven’s instructions precisely, walking up to the bookshelf that made up one entire wall. Mizan scanned the second shelf until he located
The Art of War.
He removed the book and behind it sat a red button. He pressed it and the entire wall slid to the side, revealing a hidden panic room. Mizan instantly noticed the wall safe inside. With ease, he opened the safe, and when he saw the neatly stacked kilos of cocaine, he rubbed his hands together greedily.
The Art of War.
He removed the book and behind it sat a red button. He pressed it and the entire wall slid to the side, revealing a hidden panic room. Mizan instantly noticed the wall safe inside. With ease, he opened the safe, and when he saw the neatly stacked kilos of cocaine, he rubbed his hands together greedily.
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